John Boehner: Cut spending with debt ceiling

Speaker John Boehner re-emphasized on Friday morning that he plans to use the debt limit as a chance to force President Barack Obama to cut spending.

Speaking at a closed-door House Republican Conference meeting the day after he was reelected as speaker with resistance from some conservatives, the Ohio Republican cited a poll by his adviser David Winston that showed “72 percent of Americans agree any increase in the nation’s debt limit must be accompanied by spending cuts and reforms of a greater amount.

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“That’s the principle I laid out before the Economic Club of New York in May of 2011, and I’ve repeated a number of times since. The debate is already under way,” Boehner said, according to a source in the room.

Obama, however, has flatly asserted he is not willing to negotiate with Republicans over raising the nation’s borrowing limit. The president is sure to get pressure from the left if it looks like he is willing to cut spending alongside raising the debt ceiling.

Readers' Comments (51)

Since we do not "negotiate" with terrorist, why should we "negotiate" with "economic terrorists" at home? They want cuts, yet they approved $633 billion for defense, an amount that was more than was asked for.

Obama has said repeatedly that he is not going to negotiate the debt ceiling again. That can only mean that he intends to invoke the 14th amendment if the GOP tries to go down this road. Stand strong, Mr. President, the American people have your back! John Boehner can't even handle aid for the victims of Sandy without screwing it up!

Ohio bearcat---First, Obama has spent less than any other modern president. Most of that 5 trillion comes from Bushes unpaid wars (3.8 Trillion, to be exact). Second, constitutionally, congress has to pay the bills it has incurred. There can be no "no raising the debt ceiling". That's not childish; it's fact. And Americans did stand up---we re-elected him with 51% (the highest margin of victory for a second term president since Eisenhower.

Yes, let's definitely cut spending ... on the top 2%. They don't need Social Security income and they don't need Medicare Part B (doctor visits) coverage. We can also eliminate a variety of loopholes and subsidies that are effectively "spending" on the rich.

The poor and middle class have sacrificed enough while the rich got richer from Republican policies.

Constitution of the United States of America, Article XIV, Section 4. "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection and rebellion, shall not be questioned."

Barbara, what exactly are you smoking? The lower and middle class suffer because they refuse to work. The top 2% didn't refuse to work. its that simple! I've paid more income tax in a year than you will in a lifetime. you know why? because you were satisfied working a 9-5 for someone else. YOU WERE SATISFIED BEING LOWER OR MIDDLE CLASS so you REFUSED to do the work necessary to rise above it. I spend YEARS AND YEARS working 14 and 16 hour days to get where I am and the thanks I get from the rabble is for them to point their finger at me and say I'm not paying my fair share. Never before in America have we so vilified success and cheered a president who so blatantly engaged in class warfare. You know what else the lower and middle class do, Barbara? The mistakenly think that this idiot spending is NOT going to end up on their door step in the form of higher taxes. It will, it will just be when your hero has left office.

To funny to see Boehner use a Republican poll, weren't these very same polls that assured the Republicans that they were going to win the White House, pick up seats in the House and possibly gain control of the Senate? How did those polls work out for the GOP. Sure Americans want spending cuts, but they want them across the board and unfortunately until the GOP lays their sacred defense dept on the cutting table all we hear when they talk is blah, blah, blah......